During the course of this movie, storied New York jazz musician Thomas 'Fats' Waller emerges as its patron saint. Highly fitting since the making of 'Be Kind Rewind' must have represented a boon for the art of improvisation.
It is a fresh comedy with good dialogue and quips that is playfully acted, has an original and genuinely funny idea at the center of its plot and is thematically unified by the not insignificant insight that "our past belongs to us" (Miss Falewicz, played by Mia Farrow). The movie hums along nicely and is steadily humorous, first in a Clerks (without the vulgarisms) kind of way, before the protagonists acquire a purpose and the movie enters go-for-broke-on-the-pipe-dream mode.
The movie has some hilarious moments (a pizza serving as brain-splatter, Glover insisting on "just a brief conversation" with Jack Black after he has face-painted himself minstrel-style and the ensuing visual demonstration of certain shameful vaudeville antics and the 'Fats Waller was born "here"' sign come to mind)and is visually appealing, albeit in a very low-key/lo-fi way.
I was also impressed by the creativity of the director and the attention to comic detail, both spoken and visual, which made this movie, to me, highly watchable.
It is a fresh comedy with good dialogue and quips that is playfully acted, has an original and genuinely funny idea at the center of its plot and is thematically unified by the not insignificant insight that "our past belongs to us" (Miss Falewicz, played by Mia Farrow). The movie hums along nicely and is steadily humorous, first in a Clerks (without the vulgarisms) kind of way, before the protagonists acquire a purpose and the movie enters go-for-broke-on-the-pipe-dream mode.
The movie has some hilarious moments (a pizza serving as brain-splatter, Glover insisting on "just a brief conversation" with Jack Black after he has face-painted himself minstrel-style and the ensuing visual demonstration of certain shameful vaudeville antics and the 'Fats Waller was born "here"' sign come to mind)and is visually appealing, albeit in a very low-key/lo-fi way.
I was also impressed by the creativity of the director and the attention to comic detail, both spoken and visual, which made this movie, to me, highly watchable.